Jill Schoolman

The Risk-Taker

Archipelago Books had been quietly amassing a reputation as an excellent publisher of literature in translation since Jill Schoolman founded the small press in 2003, working with authors as varied as Breyten Breytenbach, Julio Cortázar and Rainer Maria Rilke. But from the moment Ms. Schoolman published the first English translation of Karl Ove Knausgård, the Norwegian author’s six-volume memoir-esque novel, My Struggle (Archipelago is up to volume three) has become something like the In Search of Lost Time for a generation of oversharers. Likewise, Ms. Schoolman has taken her place alongside Barney Rosset and James Laughlin as a publisher who has found success by taking risks.